Human Rights Watch: New Georgian Laws Devastating Independent Civil Society
By Messenger Staff
Friday, July 10, 2026
Georgian authorities are using repressive legislation, funding restrictions and politically motivated criminal investigations to dismantle the country's independent civil society sector, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on July 9.
The organization said that since 2024, Georgia's ruling party has passed laws imposing stigmatizing registration requirements, invasive state oversight, funding controls and criminal penalties on NGOs, individuals and media outlets receiving money from abroad. Authorities have also opened investigations into activists for sharing information with international bodies and foreign media, and frozen the bank accounts of several prominent civic groups as part of a criminal probe launched after the 2024 protests.
"The Georgian government's goal has been to suppress critical voices and dismantle the country's vibrant independent civil society, and it is making frightening progress," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. He said the authorities are building a system in which independent groups cannot operate safely, sustain their funding, or support the communities that depend on them.
The findings are based on interviews Human Rights Watch conducted with 15 Georgian activists, lawyers and nongovernmental group leaders, along with its own analysis of the new laws. The organization said it wrote to Georgian officials requesting details on enforcement and received partial responses from the State Audit Office and the government.
According to the report, the Transparency of Foreign Influence Law, passed in 2024, requires NGOs and media outlets receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as organizations "serving the interests of a foreign power," giving the Justice Ministry broad authority to demand sensitive information about staff and beneficiaries. In April 2025, parliament adopted the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which Human Rights Watch said uses definitions vague enough to cover almost any group working with international donors. Under the law, designated organizations must register, file detailed reports and label all materials accordingly, with violations carrying up to five years in prison.
Separate amendments to the Law on Grants placed foreign funding under direct government control, requiring donors to obtain approval before issuing grants and making unauthorized foreign funding a criminal offense punishable by up to six years in prison. Human Rights Watch said a government decree further requires grants to align with official priorities, and cited several rejected grants, including a UK-funded election monitoring project and support for an LGBT rights organization's healthcare services.
The report also documents a wide-ranging criminal investigation opened in March 2025 alleging that the 2024 protests amounted to sabotage against the state and that some individuals assisted foreign actors in "hostile activities." As part of that probe, the accounts of 12 independent groups were frozen in 2025. One organization told Human Rights Watch that of all the restrictive measures introduced since 2024, "the asset freezing was the most severe for us," noting it had secured funding through the end of 2026 but could not access it. No organization or representative has been formally charged in connection with the investigation.
Human Rights Watch also cited a December 2025 investigation by Georgia's State Security Service tied to BBC reporting on the alleged use of toxic agents by police during demonstrations, in which rights defenders were summoned for questioning. In April 2026, former public defender Ucha Nanuashvili, who now heads the Democracy Research Center, was questioned solely for sharing information about Georgia's human rights situation with an OSCE-appointed expert, and said he was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement barring him from discussing it publicly.
The cumulative effect, the report says, has been severe. An unpublished late-2025 study by the Social Justice Center found that 96 percent of surveyed organizations reported acute financial difficulties, and 94 percent had scaled back operations or shut down entirely. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association was forced to suspend free legal assistance, and of 114 regional community organizations active in 2024, only 37 remained operational in 2025.
Interviews described the toll of the choices groups faced. The director of one organization that registered under the foreign influence law called the decision "emotionally devastating." A disability rights activist said his group refused to register because the Justice Ministry demanded personal and medical data about beneficiaries: "We had no legal right to disclose such information."
Groups working on LGBTQ rights reported some of the sharpest effects. The director of the queer feminist platform Grlz Wave told Human Rights Watch the organization had to "shift to a regime of self-censorship," adding that even openly LGBTQ individuals now refuse to appear on camera. Families of activists have also come under pressure, with several interviewees saying relatives received threatening calls during smear campaigns urging them to stop their political activity.
The report notes that both the OSCE and the Council of Europe's Venice Commission have concluded that the laws impose unjustified restrictions on fundamental freedoms and are incompatible with human rights standards.
Human Rights Watch is calling on Georgia's international partners to raise the costs of continued repression, including through targeted EU sanctions against officials responsible for the laws, and to expand emergency support for independent groups, including those now operating in exile.
"The Georgian authorities should stop treating independent civic work as a threat," Williamson said, calling on the government to repeal the laws, end politically motivated investigations, unfreeze organizations' assets and restore conditions for civil society to operate freely.
